Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of hut.ae (“Hut”, “we”, “our” or “us”) on the collection, use and disclosure of your information on hut.ae (referred to as our "Site") and the services, features, content or applications we offer (collectively referred to as "Services"). When you use our Services, you are consenting to the collection, transfer, manipulation, storage, disclosure and other uses of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Our Privacy Policy is incorporated as part of the Hut Terms of Use. Please read this Policy and our Terms carefully before using our Services. If you do not want to be bound by our Privacy Policy, please do not use our Services.

What is covered by our Privacy Policy?

Our Privacy Policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information (referred to as “Personal Information”) gathered when you use or access our Services. This Privacy Policy also covers our treatment of any Personal Information which landlords, tenants or our business partners share with us, or that we share with our business partners.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control, including but not limited to any landlords, renters, third party websites, services and applications (referred to as “Third Party Services”) that you elect to access through the Services or to individuals that we do not manage or employ. While we attempt to facilitate access only to those Third Party Services that share our respect for your privacy or that you request through your use of the Services, we cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those Third Party Services. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies of any Third Party Services you access.

Why do we collect information from you?

Hut is a real estate information service. To provide our Services, we use information we collect in order to:

Help you find the most relevant information for your situation by customizing our Services to optimise your experience;

Keep you connected with Hut across the Internet and update you with residential real estate-related news and information, if you allow us to do so;

Put you in touch with the right people to sell, buy, rent, or research residential real estate, obtain a mortgage, and to optimise the information we share with those parties to initiate a productive and efficient relationship.

Our goal in this policy is to be completely transparent about the data we collect, why we collect it, and how we use it, in order to make finding your new home a pleasant and memorable experience.

What about International users?

Your information may be maintained on and transferred to computers located outside your state, province, country or any jurisdiction. If you are located outside the UAE and choose to use our Services, the information we gather will be transferred to the UAE before processing. Your use of our Services and submission of any information represents your consent to such transfer.

What Information do we collect?

When you choose to use our Services we collect a variety of information including:

Information you provide.When using our Services, you may provide information about yourself, such as name, address, phone number, e-mail and details around a potential transaction. This may occur, for example, when you register on Hut, claim a home, correspond with a real estate agent via the Services, or complete other forms, such as a loan request. You may also provide information about a third party through the Services, for example, if you share a real estate listing with a recipient via email. We may combine this information with other information we collect from your interaction with and use of our Services or from other companies.

In addition, when you order products or services through our Services, Hut may collect your credit/debit card information. This information is secured using industry-standard encryption technology. hut.ae will use this information solely to complete your order and will not share this information with outside parties, except to the extent necessary to complete the order or comply with applicable law.

We also automatically receive and record information in our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, search queries, cookie information, and the listings and pages you request. We also record the details of your activity on the Services.

Information collected using cookies. Cookies are pieces of text that may be provided to your computer through your web browser when you access a website. Your browser stores cookies in a manner associated with each website you visit. We use cookies to enable our servers to recognise your web browser and tell us how and when you visit the Site and otherwise use the Services through the Internet. Our cookies do not, by themselves, contain Personal Information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Information to tell us who you are. As noted, however, we do use cookies to identify that your web browser has accessed aspects of the Services. Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways.

However, if you choose to disable cookies, many of the free features and Services on Hut may not operate properly. Also, the pages on the Services may include Web beacons, which are electronic files to count users who have visited that page, to identify certain cookies on the computer or other electronic device accessing that page, or to collect other related information.

This Privacy Policy covers our use of cookies only and does not cover the use of cookies by third parties, including our partners. We do not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer. For example, third party websites to which a link points may set cookies on your computer. Ads appearing on the Services may be delivered to users by our advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognise your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Hut and does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties, including advertisers or partners.

Information collected from Mobile Browsers. You can easily adjust the settings on your mobile device and mobile browser regarding cookies and sharing of certain information, such as your mobile device model or the language your mobile device uses, by adjusting the privacy and security settings on your mobile device. Please refer to the instructions provided by your mobile service provider or mobile device manufacturer in order to do so.

Information collected from Social Networks. If you use the social networking connection functions offered through our Services, we may access all of your social network profile information that you have made available to be shared and to use it in accordance with this privacy policy. Please refer to the instructions governing your social network account to manage the information that is shared through your account.

Information collected from phone calls. Calls to Hut or to third parties through hut.ae may be recorded or monitored for quality assurance and customer service purposes. If a call is recorded between you and a third party, it will be deemed private information in regards to both you and the third party, and may be released to either of you.

Information collected from your interaction with our Services. We collect statistical information about how users collectively interact with our Services. Some of this information is derived from Personal Information. This statistical information is not Personal Information and cannot be tied back to you or your web browser. This type of aggregate data enables us to figure out how often users use parts of the Services so that we can make the Services appealing to as many users as possible, and improve them. As part of this use of information, we may provide aggregate information to our partners about how our users, collectively, use our site. We share this type of statistical data so that our partners also understand how often people use their services and our Services, so that they, too, may provide you with an optimal online experience. Again, we never disclose aggregate information to a partner in a manner that would identify you personally.

We also use conversion tracking from third-party advertising platforms, including Google and Facebook. These advertising programs use cookies to help determine aggregate, anonymous actions people took on our website after clicking an ad.

Is my Personal Information secure?

You need to prevent unauthorised access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account. We endeavor to protect account information to ensure that it is kept private; however, we cannot guarantee the security of any account information. unauthorised entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time. We otherwise store all of our information, including your IP address information, using industry-standard security techniques. We do not guarantee or warrant that such techniques will prevent unauthorised access to information about you we store, Personal Information or otherwise.

How is my Information shared and used?

E-mail Communication from Us and other users. As part of our Services, you may occasionally receive email and other communications from us, such as communications relating to promotions we are offering through or related to our Services. You acknowledge and agree that by posting information on or through our Services, or requesting that we do so on your behalf, we and our agents, the landlords or tenants relevant to your request for Services, and others may send you e-mail, contact you or engage in other communications that they determine in their sole discretion relate to your profile or use of the Services.

You may opt-out of receiving such communications by following the instructions included with such emails, or emailing us at privacy@hut.ae, but then you may not have access to certain features of our Services. In addition, we and others you interact with through the Services may wish to send you a house-warming gift or other expression of appreciation, and you acknowledge and agree that we may share your Personal Information with such persons, or use your Personal Information for such purposes.

Information shared with our Agents. We employ and contract with people and other entities (referred to as our “Agents”) that perform certain tasks on our behalf and who are under our control. We may need to share Personal Information with our Agents in order to provide Services to you. Unless we tell you differently, our Agents do not have any right to use Personal Information or other information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us. You hereby consent to our sharing of Personal Information with our Agents.

Information disclosed pursuant to Business mergers, sales and acquisitions. In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the transferred business assets. Moreover, if we, or substantially all of our assets, were acquired, or if we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of us or our assets may continue to use your Personal Information as set forth in this policy.

Information disclosed for our protection and the protection of others. We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce the Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy, including investigation of potential violations thereof or hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect our rights, property or safety, our users and the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and spam/malware prevention.

Information we share in connection with the Services performed for you. The information you provide, including, without limitation, your profile information, search criteria, user name, e-mail, address, and co-habitant information, may be used to facilitate and provide the services for you and transactions within our Services. This may include, without limitation, sharing your Personal Information with potential landlords, agents, brokers, co-brokers, as applicable to your request for Services; and if you are landlord, we may also share your Personal Information (such as name, listing address, etc.) to potential tenants in connection with the Services.

Information we Share with your consent. Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Information may be shared with third parties, and will be able to prevent the sharing of this information.

Can I access the Personal Information you collect from me?

We may allow you to access certain information about you for the purpose of viewing, and in certain situations, updating that information. This list will change as our Services change. When you update information, however, we often maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by sending an e-mail to our webmaster at privacy@hut.ae. Please note that some information may remain in our records even after deletion of your account.

Will I be notified about any changes in this Privacy Policy?

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make changes in the way we collect or use information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the Services or sending you an e-mail. A user is bound by any changes to the Privacy Policy when he or she uses the Services after such changes have been first posted.

Who do I contact incase I have any concerns?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy using our Services, please send us a detailed message to privacy@hut.ae. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns and answer any questions.